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[Tirdad Zolghadr] will be joined by leading UAE art world representatives Sultan Al-Qassemi, Mishaal Al Gergawi, Sunny Rahbar, and Shumon Basar for a panel discussion titled I knew this would happen - UAE Pavilion at Venice Biennale. The discussion will explore issues relating to the UAE Pavilion, including the new perspectives that an international event such as the Venice Biennale can bring to the cultural landscape of the UAE; the key challenges facing UAE artists today in having their work understood by and presented to international audiences; and the potential of the Saadiyat Island Cultural District to engage local artists. Presented under the patronage of His Highness General Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, Emirati Expressions features approximately 160 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, videos, and installations by UAE artists. The exhibition, curated by Anne Baldassari, Director of the Musee National Picasso in Paris, is open through 16 April 2009 in Gallery One of Emirates Palace. 4. The Dubai Culture was launched in March 2008 by H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, to highlight Dubai as a dynamic culture, heritage and arts centre. Dubai Culture aims to create, drive and support cultural strategies while preserving national identity. With a vision to create a vibrant Arabian, global city that shapes 21st Century culture and art in the region and the world, it will build upon Dubai's status as a multicultural city, inspiring and encouraging its more than 200 resident nationalities to contribute to its culture and arts renaissance. The Authority is responsible for developing best policies, institutional and regulatory framework and funding within the cultural industry of Dubai. It will create physical infrastructure to position Dubai as an overall culture, heritage and arts venue as well as increase awareness in cultural activities by initiating a robust dialogue with the public. It will nurture talent through development of culture, heritage and arts curricula in schools and through partnerships with leading educational institutions to attract artists and cultural professionals to Dubai and inspire local talent to travel abroad.

  November [November Paynter] will serve as APT Dubai's Director. APT Dubai's dedicated Curatorial Committee includes Mai Abu ElDahab (Cairo); Vasif Kortun (Istanbul); Akram Zaatari (Beirut); and Tirdad Zolghadr (Tehran). Curatorial Committee, APT DubaiNovember Paynter (Director) received a Masters degree from the Royal College of Art, London in Curating Contemporary Art. She had previously worked at the Barbican and the Institute of Contemporary Arts before moving to Istanbul in 2002 where she soon thereafter took a position as Assistant Curator at Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center. She was one of two assistant curators of the 9th International Istanbul Biennial in 2005. Among other achievements, she is the 2003 recipient of the Premio Lorenza Bonaldi per L'arte - EnterPrize and the first curator under the age of 30 to be recognized with this award. Exhibitions she has curated include: Coming Up; Making Space; Tracey Istanbulda, the first solo exhibition by Tracey Emin in Turkey; Another Zero; and How Can you Resist, Freewaves, LA, a program of new media work from the Middle East. She most recently held the position of Consultant Curator at Tate Modern for the exhibition Global Cities, before moving back to Istanbul in July 2007. Mai Abu ElDahab (CCM) is Artistic Director at Objectif_Exhibitions in Antwerp. Prior to this position, in 2007 she was co-editor at Aprior Magazine 14, and guest editor of CAC Interviu Summer 2007, curator-in-residence at PROGR in Bern, and visiting tutor at the School of Visual Arts in New York. In 2006, she was curator of Philip at Project Arts Center in Dublin, co-editor of Dotdotdot 13, and co-curator of the unrealized Manifesta set to take place in Nicosia.Vasif Kortun (CCM) is the director of Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center. He was the founding director of Proje4L Istanbul Museum of Contemporary Art (2001-2003), and the Chief Curator and Director of the 3rd International stanbul Biennial (1992) and the co-Director of the 9th International Istanbul Biennial (2005). Between 1994 and 1997, he worked as the founding Director of the Museum of the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College. Jahresring 51: Szene Turkei: Abseits aber Tor, a book on Turkey co-authored with Erden Kosova was published in 2004. Kortun received the 9th annual Award for Curatorial Excellence given by the Center for Curatorial Studies in 2006. Akram Zaatari (CCM) is an artist whose work is based in video and research. He lives and works in Beirut, and is author of more than 40 videos, among them 2005: In this house (30 mins) 2003: This Day (86 min.). 2001: How I love You (29 min), Her + Him Van Leo (32 min). 1997: Crazy of You (27 min) and All is Well on the Border (43 min).

In Tehran, a cocktail bar, The Promessa, closed during the Islamic Revolution in 1978, is about to reopen as a fashionable venue for corporate hospitality and a setting where the movers and shakers of the cosmopolitan worlds of fashion and art can mix and mingle. Softcore, [Tirdad Zolghadr]'s satirical début novel, is narrated by San, a young Iranian man tasked by his shadowy employers with finishing the project on time and under budget.